Paul Beckers

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Paul Beckers in the Berlin Scala , 1936

Paul Beckers (born November 1, 1878 in Magdeburg , † April 27, 1965 in Leipzig ) was a German comedian .

Life

Caricature by Paul Haase , before 1914
Paul Becker's grave in the Südfriedhof in Leipzig

Paul Beckers was the son of the Elbe shipper Gustav Beckers and Marie Beckers geb. Gabriel. He completed an acting and musical training. At first he was an orchestral musician and played the flute and oboe in a small band . In 1902 he made his debut at the Magdeburg City Theater . He appeared there in operettas . This was followed by a two-year stay in the United States . After his return he tried out different areas. He played in revues at the Apollo Theater in Berlin , was a character actor and director at the Komische Oper . He also worked for the new media broadcasting and silent film .

The artist agent Robert Wilschke paved the way for him to become a variety artist. He appeared in all well-known German variety theaters , including the Berlin Wintergarten and the Leipzig Krystallpalast . In the Leipzig Battenberg Varieté on Tauchaer Strasse (now Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse) he staged and played popular pieces. His favorite figure was the fly bag Heinrich , a tramp and trader with so-called fly bags, glue-based flycatchers. The fly bag Heinrich goes back to a Magdeburg original , which is shown there as a relief on the city wall below the Magdalenenkapelle . All of Paul Becker's silent films refer to this character.

Through Emil Winter-Tymian he got in touch with the Saxon men's singing society scene. After Winter-Tymian's death in 1926, he directed his “Tymians Thalia Theater” in Görlitzer Strasse in Dresden . In 1927 he opened his own theater “Beckers Bunte Bühne” in what was then Wettiner Strasse, which he ran until 1930.

In the 1930s he should have turned exclusively to the now strongly developing sound film , which is proven by the long series of films in which he has worked as an actor.

During the Second World War he lost all of his possessions. At the age of 67, he tried to build on his earlier comic career with solo appearances after 1945, which he succeeded. He was best known for the Saxon number of "Plättbrett". His humor was simple and drastic. He gave the last performance in December 1961 at the age of 83 in the Magdeburg Kristall-Palast in the revue "Mein Magdeburg am Elbestrand".

Paul Beckers spent his old age in Leipzig. Here he and his wife Marga took over a guesthouse in Leplaystrasse, where mainly artists stayed with their ex-colleagues.

Beckers is buried in the south cemetery in Leipzig . On his tombstone it says: "I made millions of people laugh and no one will cry for me".

Filmography (selection)

  • 1917: The fly bag Heinrich
  • 1918: The fly bag Othello
  • 1918: Fly bags Heinrich as a reindeer
  • 1918: Fly bags Heinrichs bad luck
  • 1919: Flybag Heinrich as Don Juan
  • 1928: big fire! Human lives in danger!
  • 1932: Holy salvation!
  • 1932: The heather is green
  • 1933: The family album
  • 1933: happiness in the castle
  • 1933: Mister Hercules
  • 1933: This is how we live every day
  • 1933: When the village music plays on Sunday evening
  • 1933: When men cook
  • 1933: The dream of the Rhine
  • 1934: Old comrades
  • 1934: The horror of the Heidekrug
  • 1934: Say hello to the cart again
  • 1934: My wife, the shooter queen
  • 1935: I love all women
  • 1935: Sustaining society
  • 1936: Miss Veronika
  • 1936: Hangover lamp

literature

  • Ernst Günther: History of Variety , Henschelverlag, Berlin 1981
  • Katrin Löffler, Iris Schöpa, Heidrun Sprinz: Paul Beckers , in: Der Leipziger Südfriedhof. History, graves, grave monuments , Edition Leipzig, 2000, ISBN 3-361-00526-4 , p. 106
  • Short biography for:  Beckers, Paul . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Paul Beckers  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ancestry.com: Magdeburg, Germany, birth register 1874–1903, registry office Magdeburg Altstadt, register number 2947/1878
  2. ↑ Bert Hähne: A rectangle that connects , In: Leipziger Blätter No. 60, 2012, p. 33
personal data
SURNAME Beckers, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German comedian
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1965
Place of death Leipzig